


Ghostiversary

by mavislever



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Anniversary, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Holtzbert - Freeform, Holtzbert Trash (GET IT!?), One Year Later, WIP, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 12:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11989482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mavislever/pseuds/mavislever
Summary: Holtzmann takes Erin to see a very special dumpster to celebrate the one-year anniversary of that ghost in the subway.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Work in progress!

“Well ghost, consider yourself-”

“Please don’t.”

“BUSTED.”

Holtzmann cringed. “That was truly horrendous,” she grinned, “also, probably best not to -”. She gently confiscated the proton gun Erin was waving about and placed it gingerly back into the glovebox, which Erin now noticed was plastered with the warning stickers she’d given Holtzy after the incident with Kevin’s thumb. Erin registered a mixture of alarm, and pride that her gift was actually being put to use.

“Your turn.”

Holtzmann waved one hand dismissively as she spun the steering wheel with the other, careening down an alley off McFarlane Ave.

“They just sort of come to me -”

“‘You just got Holtzmanned’ just came to you?”

“- in the moment. Call it the creative byproduct of an adrenaline surge.”

Erin brandished an imaginary proton pack at the windscreen. “You just got Gilberted!’”

“AHA!”

Holtzmann slammed on the breaks, jolting Erin in her seat, and bringing the Ecto-1 skidding to a halt beside a massive gray dumpster. She practically leapt from the car.

“That bad?” Erin called after her.

“No!” she was now hoisting herself into the dumpster. A damp thud and some rustling, then she popped her head back up.

“Well, yes, but, not that.” She seemed remarkably triumphant for someone now covered in trash. “Come see!”

Erin glanced around for something to stand on, to no avail. So, with a sigh and an uncoordinated sort of hop, she took Holtzmann’s hand and awkwardly scrambled up and over the side of the dumpster. Her oversized boots scraped pathetically against the side as she teetered on the lip. Holtzmann laughed and gripped her arm tighter.

“Ready?”

Before she could ask ‘ready for what?’, Holtzmann had given her a firm tug and pulled her head-first into the dumpster where she landed with an uncomfortable THUD directly on top of her. She was beginning to appreciate why Holtz had insisted this was a jumpsuit-mandatory excursion - there was something dripping into her left shoe, and her hand was resting on something upsettingly slimy.

Holtzmann adjusted her safety goggles and smiled benignly up at her.

“Holtzmann?”

“Yes Erin.”

“Why are we in a dumpster?”

“I’m so glad you asked.”

And she rolled Erin neatly off her and started rifling through bags of trash. A moment later, she emerged - “ta-da!” - presenting a dead smoke detector. She thumbed in the direction of the white building the dumpster presumably belonged to.

“They’re doing a system overhaul in there. These things are goldmines,” she pried open the case and took a deep sniff of the components, “no more than a year old, this one. Yahtzee.”

“You know we can buy supplies now - “ Erin began, but stopped at the look of consternation on Holtzmann’s face.

“I thought you might like to see.” Erin felt she must be missing something.

“The… smoke detectors…?”

“The place I got the primary components of the proton pack we used against that first ghost in the subway. The day we met Patty.” She had said it matter-of-factly, her face buried in the bag of smoke detectors again as she tinkered. But Erin was completely taken aback.

“Are you…” she could feel her face flush a little red. “Holtz, are we… celebrating an anniversary right now?”

“I thought... ghostiversary.”

Erin gaped at her.

“You hate it. Never mind. It was stupid. We can go I’ll come back for these later. Here, I’ll give you a boost.” Holtzmann was kneeling stoically by the dumpster wall before Erin even had time to process what was happening.

“What -” Erin regarded her friend with a furrowed brow.

“Why -” she ventured again, trying to put her finger on why her friend was suddenly and inexplicably as awkward as she was. Erin shifted her weight, and her right hand landed in another puddle of slime.

“Eughck,” she gagged and tried to shake it off, flinging brown muck across the dumpster and splattering them both.

A giant glob smacked Holtzmann squarely in the forehead, and a guffaw escaped Erin before she could contain it. She gasped and ducked behind her hands just as Holtz scooped the slime up and flicked it back at her, raining her in sticky flecks. Erin gave a gleeful shriek as she tried to dodge the onslaught, and Holtzmann cracked a triumphant grin.

“Well what better way to celebrate an entire year of being covered in slime,” Erin chuckled.

“To the improbable frequency of your slimings!” Holtz raised another handful of the trash juice as a toast, forcing Erin to lunge forward and shove her arm aside to avert another shower. She had to grab Holtzmann’s knee to prevent herself from toppling head first into the wall of the dumpster, and Holtz seized the collar of Erin’s jumpsuit to steady her, her grimy thumb grazing the nape of her neck.

“Uh, Dr Gilbert,” she said in her most serious and professional voice, her baby blues reflecting Erin’s thoroughly spattered face back at her from inches away, “you have a little something on your nose.”

“You’re a maniac.”

“Why thank you.”

Holtzmann’s wink turned Erin’s cheeks an astonishing shade of scarlet.

And then the dumpster lid slammed shut, plunging them both into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Incomplete chapter / work in progress!

“Hey. Excuse me! HEY!” Erin hammered on the inside of the dumpster in panic. “HEY! There are PEOPLE IN HERE!” She strained against the lid, but it didn’t budge.

“Holtzmann, a little help?”

She felt Holtzmann clamber up beside her in the darkness, and on a “one, two, three -” they both heaved their shoulders into it, to no avail.

“Shit. Shit. Shit,” Erin kicked the wall in frustration, “how are you so calm?”

“Ehhhh it happens,” came Holtzmann’s cavalier response from somewhere to her right.

“Holtzmann!”

“Re-lax, we can just call Patty.”

“Patty. Right, yes. Call Patty.”

They both stood motionless in the dark for several seconds.

“Well I left my phone in the car.”

“Mine had an… incident. Involving a soldering iron and some dry ice. There were no survivors.”

“Why were you even -” Erin let out a frustrated growl. “It doesn’t matter.” She flopped down into the garbage with a squelch.


End file.
